What do you want to know about the Draconomicon?

[Rechan]

The Books-a-Million here has both Martial Power and Draconomicon on the shelves. Since I pre-ordered MP from Amazon, I'm not too worried about it (although I do plan on glancing through the Rogue section and the feats, mm yummy).

What I plan on doing is sitting down and thumbing through the Draconomicon.

Anyone out there have specific things they'd like me to look for/remember?

Here's what I remember from yesterday:

Purple Dragons: Controllers that do psychic damage.
Various Planar dragons (Faerie Dragon, Shadow Dragon, Pact Dragon (I plan on reading up on this, because I just saw it on the ToC).
Templates: Draconic Creature, and... some other dragon-related template (I forget).
Wyrmlings.
Alternate Powers for dragons (suggestions for 'instead of X, use Y'; I think each dragon gets 1; I plan on reading this section).

[thecasualoblivion]

I physically have the book, and and can answer questions now if people would like.

[Derren]

1. A index would be nice

2. Generally, how is the balance between fluff and crunch?

3. Is there also some PC material in it, or is it just for DMs?

4. Does the book give dragons a bit of utility back which they lost together with their spellcasting abilities or is it just combat powers?

4.1 Any new rituals?

Thanks

[thecasualoblivion]

Originally Posted by Derren

1. A index would be nice

2. Generally, how is the balance between fluff and crunch?

3. Is there also some PC material in it, or is it just for DMs?

4. Does the book give dragons a bit of utility back which they lost together with their spellcasting abilities or is it just combat powers?

4.1 Any new rituals?

Thanks

1. Table of Contents:

1: Dragon Lore--pgs 4-42
2: DM's Guid to Dragons--pgs44-88
3: Dragon Lairs--pgs90-164
4: New Monsters--pgs166-254

2. Fluff vs. Crunch? I'd say the first two sections of the book are 90% fluff. The Dragon Lairs stuff is more premade encounters/adventure type things, and would be accurately called neither fluff nor crunch. It did include some DM tools for dungeon building not unlike the terrain/trap rules from the DMG. The new monsters section is crunch, but with more fluff than the 4E Monster Manual tends to have.

3. I've given the book a cursory read from cover to cover, and didn't see much of any player info. The one section I recall having player info was using dragon parts as ritual components, but this was optional/under DM discretion.

4. Utility? Not really. I don't think PCs really get the utility stuff you're talking about to the degree you're talking about in 4E, so I don't really see why monsters would. Dragons are described as often using Rituals, but that is about it.

5. There are new rituals, but they seem to be more useful to Dragons than to PCs.

[Shroomy]

Can someone describe the two new templates? I'm interested if the "draconic creature" template is the 4e half-dragon (I know it became almost cliche in 3.x, but I still want it for a varitey of reasons).

Also, I have a soft spot for the faerie dragon, at least the faerie dragon from previous editions. Is the 4e faerie dragon similar to the previous edition's and how does it relate to chromatic dragons?

[thecasualoblivion]

Originally Posted by Shroomy

Can someone describe the two new templates? I'm interested if the "draconic creature" template is the 4e half-dragon (I know it became almost cliche in 3.x, but I still want it for a varitey of reasons).

Also, I have a soft spot for the faerie dragon, at least the faerie dragon from previous editions. Is the 4e faerie dragon similar to the previous edition's and how does it relate to chromatic dragons?

The "draconic creature" template does indeed resemble the Half-Dragon template of old, though its limited to the Brute and Soldier roles.

The Faerie Dragon does have an entry in the Draconomicon. They have almost no connection to chromatic dragons, and while I'm not familiar with the Faerie Dragons of previous editions, the 4E Faerie Dragon is very small. About the size of a dog. Its a level 4 Skirmisher(not elite or solo).

[Shroomy]

The faerie dragon was a small dragon with butterfly wings, a trickster mentality (and the accompanying magical abilities), and a euphoria gas breath weapon. Is the new one similar?

[thecasualoblivion]

Originally Posted by Shroomy

The faerie dragon was a small dragon with butterfly wings, a trickster mentality (and the accompanying magical abilities), and a euphoria gas breath weapon. Is the new one similar?

Small dragon with butterfly wings--check
Trickster mentality--check
Accompanying magical abilities--not so much, its all combat(you could give them rituals/Wizard Cantrips for flavor without any hassle), combat tricks include blinding, teleportation, invisibility, sneak attack
Breath Weapon--is a radiant attack that teleports the dragon or turns it invisible

[Shroomy]

Originally Posted by thecasualoblivion

Small dragon with butterfly wings--check
Trickster mentality--check
Accompanying magical abilities--not so much, its all combat(you could give them rituals/Wizard Cantrips for flavor without any hassle), combat tricks include blinding, teleportation, invisibility, sneak attack
Breath Weapon--is a radiant attack that teleports the dragon or turns it invisible

Close enough. It sounds awesome, though I'm kind of curious why its showing up in a book devoted to Chromatic Dragons.

So, what are the other planar dragons in the book?

[thecasualoblivion]

Originally Posted by Shroomy

Close enough. It sounds awesome, though I'm kind of curious why its showing up in a book devoted to Chromatic Dragons.

So, what are the other planar dragons in the book?

Planar Dragons aren't their own type as much as they are Dragons transformed by the planes they inhabit. Most of them descended from Chromatics.

There are Abyssal Dragons(frostforged and Deathmask), Astral Dragons(battle dragons--Red/Gold hybrid, and Pact Dragons--Githyanki mounts), Elemental Dragons(Blazewyrm, Dragon Eel, Tempest Dragon, Pyroclastic Dragon), Feywild Dragons(Faerie, Mirage, Wretch), Shadowfell Dragons(Blight, Shadow).

[Rokes]

Originally Posted by thecasualoblivion

I physically have the book, and and can answer questions now if people would like.

How does it compare in quality to the 3.5e Draconomicon? That book remains one of my favorites.

[Rechan]

FYI: The Art? It is awesome. I remember that much.

[thecasualoblivion]

Originally Posted by Rokes

How does it compare in quality to the 3.5e Draconomicon? That book remains one of my favorites.

I'm not familiar with the 3.5e Draconomicon, so I can't answer this unfortunately.

[frankthedm]

What are the stats of the hatchlings? I am hoping minions to get away from the "All Dragons are Uber" mentality infecting this game since 2E.

[thecasualoblivion]

Originally Posted by frankthedm

What are the stats of the hatchlings? I am hoping minions to get away from the "All Dragons are Uber" mentality infecting this game since 2E.

They're Elites, levels 2-5.